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On the first pitch he ever saw from his father, 4-year-old Kyle Lodise let loose with a mighty swing... and he cracked that Wiffle ball. 

Now, years later, Lodise is still smashing balls as Georgia Tech’s star shortstop.

More than that, Lodise (pronounced Low-deece) is one-half of a rarity: two first cousins starting at shortstop in the ACC. The other half of that equation is Florida State’s Alex Lodise. Both of them are 21 years old.

“I’ve never seen it before, and I’ve been in the league 32 years,” Georgia Tech coach Danny Hall said when asked about two cousins starting at shortstop in the ACC. “I think it’s very unique. The dads of the two players must have some good bloodlines and baseball genes.”

Kyle’s parents are Dan and Amy. Alex’s parents are Billy and Cindy.

Dan and Billy are brothers, and their sister, Susie, also brings good genes due to her career as a professional ballerina. The next time you see Alex or Kyle perform a pirouette around the second-base bag, remember Susie.

The family’s genetic tree extends to Kyle’s younger brother, Jordan Lodise, an 18-year-old who plays … you guessed it … shortstop.

Jordan, a senior at Brunswick (Georgia) High, has signed to play at UCF.

“He is the best fielder of the three shortstops,” said his father, Dan. “The Tigers and Diamondbacks have both shown interest in drafting Jordan in July.”

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If that were to happen, the baseball world could see something incredible – three Lodise shortstops selected in one draft.

As for the two older shortstops, D1Baseball.com ranks Kyle as the 34th-best college prospect in the 2025 draft. Alex is right behind him at No. 35, and, if that projection holds, both players should get selected in the top three rounds.

Kyle and Alex Lodise in the Cape Cod league last summer

That ranking of the cousins is fitting because these two cousins — who text each other almost every day — have been trying to out-do each other all season.

Take Alex’s two-homer game at Miami on March 20. He went 4-for-5 with five RBIs in a 14-1 victory.

The very next day, Kyle went 4-for-5 with three homers and five RBIs in an 18-7 win over host Notre Dame. His first homer came on the game’s second pitch.

Said Alex: “I texted Kyle and said, ‘Really? You really had to one-up me like that?’ But we just try to push each other.”

Four days after Kyle’s big day, Alex had another monster game, hitting a walk-off grand slam to beat rival Florida, 8-4. Alex went 4-for-5 with four RBIs, and he also hit for the cycle for the first time in his career. In fact, it was FSU’s first cycle since 2019, and the Seminoles’ first walk-off homer since 2022.

Kyle said that game of one-upmanship is no coincidence.

“We’re really close,” Kyle said of his relationship with Alex. “We feed off each other’s energy.”

That closeness began in the seventh grade, when Alex’s family moved from New Jersey to St. Augustine, Florida — just 90 minutes south of Kyle’s home in Brunswick, Georgia.

After that, a new tradition was born as Kyle’s family travels to Alex’s house every Thanksgiving and again for Christmas. As part of those festivities, both families gather at a park near Alex’s house, and they play Wiffle ball.

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Included in those games are Alex and his brother Anthony; Kyle and his brother Jordan. Susie, Dan and Billy also play.

As for “real” games, Alex and Kyle have faced off just once — and it was a bit of split decision. Alex’s Bartram Trail High School team beat Kyle’s Brunswick squad, 9-1. But Kyle came on to pitch, retiring Alex on a groundout.

“That’s the one thing I have on him,” Kyle said.

When it came time for college, Alex chose North Florida, where he played one season, starting all 55 games at shortstop while producing a .306 average with 14 doubles, two triples, 16 homers, 63 RBIs and a .976 OPS. His first college hit was a game-tying homer in North Florida’s season opener, and Alex kept going from there, hitting .393 with runners in scoring position.

He also had 17 multi-hit games, set the UNF freshman record for homers and was named first-team All-Atlantic Sun Conference.

“Playing at North Florida was probably the best decision I ever made,” Alex said. “I played every day as a freshman, and that helped me develop.”

Alex, who grew up rooting for the Seminoles, jumped into the transfer portal following that season, and it came down to FSU and Auburn.

Florida State's Alex Lodise

“The difference,” said Billy Lodise, Alex’s father, “is that my son wanted to learn shortstop from (FSU coach) Link Jarrett, who played the position.”

Alex was an immediate success in 2024, starting 62 of FSU’s 66 games. He hit .281 with 14 doubles, nine homers, 44 RBIs and an .833 OPS.

In March, he homered in three straight contests, and he finished the season on a career-high 23-game on-base streak. He also homered against eventual national champion Tennessee in the College World Series as the Seminoles won at least two games in the CWS for the first time since 2012.

This season, Alex has been even better as he is the best hitter on a Seminoles team that is 31-9 and ranked fifth in the country.

Alex, who has 14 homers and is 6-for-6 on steals, leads FSU in batting average (.440); doubles (15); RBIs (53); slugging (.804); and on-base (.489). He ranks eighth in all of Division I with a 1.293 OPS, and he ranks second in the country in Wins Above Replacement (4.15), according to Synergy and 6-4-3 Charts.

Billy Lodise was asked about his brother’s comment that Jordan is the best fielder of the three Lodise shortstops.

“My brother thinks his sons are the best, and I think my son is the best,” Billy said. “We don’t talk about it, but the competition is there.”

Kyle started his career at Division II Augusta University and then made a name for himself last summer, when he starred in the Cape Cod League. For his junior year, he transferred to Georgia Tech, where he's missed five games this season due to injury, but he has started all 39 of his contests, batting .363 with 18 doubles, two triples, 14 homers, 47 RBIs, .763 slugging and .461 on-base. He is also 8-for-8 on steals. And Kyle ranks 11th in the country in WAR (3.79), which is the best overall measure of his incredible value.

Georgia Tech's Kyle Lodise

“Yeah, I’m a leadoff guy, and my job is to get on,” Kyle said. “But I can slug from the leadoff spot. I can do damage.”

Georgia Tech freshman Alex Hernandez, who has played a lot of second base this season, said Kyle is constantly in his ear, mentoring him.

“(Kyle) has a lot of energy,” Hernandez said. “He plays with confidence. He is all over the place, letting me know what I need to do. And he always mixes in random comments. There are a lot of inside jokes.”

Hall, Georgia Tech’s coach, said he didn’t promise Kyle the starting job at shortstop this past fall. Kyle had to beat out Carson Kerce, who is now the third baseman.

“In the fall, we played each of them at shortstop every time we had an intra-squad game,” Hall said. “But it became clear that Kyle was the best shortstop.

“Kyle is a late bloomer. I don’t ever remember seeing him playing when he was in high school. I didn’t know anything about him until it became clear he was going to go into the portal.

“Jason Richman, our director of pitching, had coached at the Division II level and was aware of Kyle. He said, ‘This guy is a good player. We need to see if we can get him.'”

Kyle said he was “bummed” when the 2025 schedule came out and there was no Florida State-Georgia Tech matchup.

But neither of the cousins have given up on the chance that their teams could meet before their college careers are over.

“Maybe we’ll play in the ACC tournament or in a super regional,” Kyle said. “Maybe we’ll match up in the College World Series.

“That would be crazy.”